Avalara buys Denver’s HotSpot Tax

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Bainbridge Island tax software company Avalara is spending some of the $100 million it raised last fall to buy HotSpot Tax, a Denver company that provides tax tools to the vacation rental industry.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Avalara said all 11 of HotSpot’s employees accepted jobs with Avalara, and they’ll run the business as standalone operation for now.

HotSpot is an opportunity to expand Avalara’s cloud-based, tax-compliance products into a new and growing market, Avalara founder and Chief Executive Scott McFarlane said in a release.

“Second home and room rentals represent a significant and growing segment of the new sharing economy, which presents a variety of tax and compliance complexities for micro businesses and private owners,” he said.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @BrierDudley. Brier Dudley is a member of The Seattle Times editorial board. His columns appear regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Email: bdudley@seattletimes.com